So my pup developed this habit when he was about 10 weeks old and now is approaching 8 months old. When people come over or when we come home after leaving him home for more than 30 min., he gets so excited he pees. People keep saying he'll grow out of it, but he's been doing it for so long now. We have tried the no touch, no talk, no eye contact; but he gets so excited sniffing us that he does it anyways. I have tried training him to lay down to greet people but he'll still pee laying on his side.

Did anyone else have this problem? What age did it stop if it did actually stop? Or maybe there are better techniques to controlling this so I don't have to take him outside every time so he can meet the people and pee out there. He is the perfect pup, he does everything right and is so smart. It is such a pain to have this habit because I don't know what to do.

I have a 9 month old female who had this problem BADLY for a long time, and will still occasionally have an accident. First- have you talked to the vet about it? Dogs with incontinence issues tend to get UTI's (they lick themselves clean, introduce bacteria, etc), which makes issues worse and prolongs it. It sort of becomes a cycle.

Generally how it starts is the pup was approached in a super excited way and either excited tinkled or submissive urinated and it happened enough times in a row to become a conditioned behavior. The submissive urination is distinctly different from the excited urination though. You can tell the difference with the body language. The submissive urinators have that please don't kill me kind sir look to them. The excited pee dogs look more frantic.

With the excited dogs I hurry them outside to pee as quickly as I can. They'll often trigger at close distance and you can avoid that trigger by tossing food at them at a distance to keep them outside threshhold and then get them outside then wait for them to pee then try introductions. You might also try correcting frantic behavior. Basically dog comes at you all frantic you say no and give a correction and don't allow the dog to approach you with that energy.

The submissive urination can't be corrected it would just make it worse. The threshhold thing with the food can help but what also helps is raising the threshold of the dog. Long story short I generally do this by getting the dog hungry and then start doing things that are outside of the dogs comfort zone such as leaning over them, making mean faces, and eventually even things like coming at them with a stick or surprising them with quick movements that are marked and then high value food comes. The idea is to get them more comfortable with movements that before would have caused fear and submissive urination.

For future reference though when you guys get a puppy like that make sure you get them outside calmly and then wait for them to potty before you introduce them to strangers or friends. Do it in a very calm way too otherwise it becomes a classically conditioned behavior in many cases.

IGNORING them is what works. So if you are trying to train a behavior like a 'down' to calm them you aren't going to win. Having them 'down' and asking for the 'down' isn't ignoring.

They will grow out of it over time the better we are at doing the ignoring (so you can see this is a vicious cycle). They need to learn that when we come home, and when new people arrive it is NOT a crazy exciting time that they are reacting too. But instead ends up being a kind of a bummer with zero attention/time spent with them.

I know another help for me is to allow the dog to go out the door while I let the people inside. So I'm with the new people and saying hi to them while the dog is outside the door (maybe peeing on the step/grass which is better then the house!) where nothing is happening and all the 'fun' is with me but even that's not fun cause NO ONE is acknowledging the dog.

No talking. No eye contact. My dog with this issue was only getting my back until they calmed and we are going outside in a sec ANYWAYS for the normal pee/poo all my dogs get when I arrive back home.

Also have you literally met hundreds of people with your puppy when out and about on socialization trips? If meeting new people is getting a bit boring, then you aren't going to get the urination either.

Dena was an excited pee-er, and it took awhile for her to grow out of it. Somewhere between 6 months and a year, but I don't recall exactly when. From the time we got her at 9 weeks old she loved meeting new people. If I were walking her around the neighborhood and she so much as heard voices in the distance she'd look around for the people and then try to drag me over so she could meet them. And then pee all over their shoes......

At home, we just made sure that people met her outside, and then when she was done dribbling all over, we all came in the house. Other than that we didn't make a big deal about it and she did eventually outgrow it. She never did outgrow her love of people though, especially kids and babies. Miss that sweet girl.

__________________

-Debbie-

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Thanks everyone. I definitely will utilize your advice. Maggie, I made socialization my number one priority when I got him at 6 weeks. I was still in college and brought him to collegiate events, tail gates, and parties (responsibly I might add). He loves meeting new people. The peeing has gotten better. It used to be for everyone, now only a few people trigger it. It makes sense though that even though I take him outside, we should still ignore him so he gets used to that.

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